The Broncos have worked countless hours, piled up the miles and been coast to coast and border to border to prepare for the draft each year.

They’ve stayed up late and gotten in early, and nowhere have they been frustrated more by the fruits of those labors than on the defensive line.

A 3-4, a 4-3, a different head coach, a different general manager, even a different owner, it simply hasn’t mattered.

Over the last 30 drafts — from 1982 to 2011 — the team has selected 40 players listed as defensive linemen when they came off the board. Just three of those selections — Karl Mecklenburg, Trevor Pryce and Elvis Dumervil — have gone to the Pro Bowl.

And only two — Pryce and Dumervil — went to the Pro Bowl as defensive linemen, since the do-it-all Mecklenburg was formally moved to linebacker in the Broncos’ 3-4 package in 1984.

Nose tackle Greg Kragen was named to one Pro Bowl in his time with the Broncos but did it as an undrafted player.

That means over the last three decades, the Broncos have selected just one defensive lineman in each decade who went on to the Pro Bowl — Mecklenburg in the 1980s, Pryce in the 1990s and Dumervil in the 2000s.

That means the slot is still available for the 2010s to go with a deeper crop of defensive linemen this year, especially at defensive tackle, than has been seen in many recent drafts.

But the Broncos have found some highly productive players through the years (Simon Fletcher, Shane Dronett), some starters (Robert Ayers, Marcus Thomas and Reggie Hayward) and some guys who went on to play more in other places (like Montae Reagor), but that Pro Bowl list remains short and not so sweet in the big picture.

What’s it all mean? It means the draft is a brutal endeavor for even the most self- confident. It’s difficult, unpredictable and the differences between the good picks and the bad ones are often what can’t be seen.

Baltimore Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome was asked in recent weeks about his draft success, and he simply responded, “Lucky.”

That’s more than modest for one of the league’s most consistent performers on draft weekend, but if there is a year the Broncos could simply use a little draft luck to go with the noses to the grindstone, this is it.